Literary Poetry Nominations • January 2016

[sun surfer]

Happy New Year! Help us select what the MR Literary Club will read in January 2016!

The nominations will run for four days until 5 January. Then, a separate voting poll will begin where the month's selection will be decided.


The category for this month is:

Poetry


In order for a work to be included in the poll it needs four nominations - the original nomination plus three supporting.

Each participant has four nominations to use. You can nominate a new work for consideration or you can support (second, third or fourth) a work that has already been nominated by another person.

To nominate a work just post a message with your nomination. If you are the first to nominate a work, it's always nice to provide an abstract to the work so others may consider their level of interest.


What is literature for the purposes of this club? A superior work of lasting merit that enriches the mind. Often it is important, challenging, critically acclaimed. It may be from ancient times to today; it may be from anywhere in the world; it may be obscure or famous, short or long; it may be a story, a novel, a play, a poem, an essay or another written form. If you are unsure if a work would be considered literature, just ask!


The floor is now open!

*

Nominations are closed. Final nominations:


The poetry of John Clare - Fully nominated

Spoiler:

In favour- sun surfer, Bookpossum, fantasyfan, bfisher


From sun surfer:

Most of his various selected poetry collections are only in pbook, though there is a Poems Chiefly from Manuscript free ebook on Amazon, and a Delphi complete works ebook for 99 cents. This nomination is open-ended with no particular collection in mind. Rather, we can read whichever poems or collection of his we each prefer and discuss our varying experiences with it.


From Goodreads:

John Clare produced some of English poetry’s most poignant and glorious lyrics. Writing not as an observer of nature but from an intimate knowledge of the wheatfields, hedgerows, and ditches of his village in Northamptonshire, he described animals, insects, trees, rivers, sunlight, and clouds with sublime sensitivity. But as enclosures and “improvements” came in the early nineteenth century, dismembering the rural landscape, his later poems became infused with a sense of disorientation and loss, and scattered with threads of madness. Clare’s genius has been rediscovered by fellow poets in every generation since his death, from Dylan Thomas to Ted Hughes to Seamus Heaney... His poetry underwent a major re-evaluation in the late 20th century and he is often now considered to be one of the most important 19th-century poets.

Sonnets of William Shakespeare - Fully nominated

Spoiler:

In favour- fantasyfan, Bookpossum, Bookworm_Girl, bfisher


From fantasyfan:

Many have read some of them but to go through the entire sequence is an aesthetic journey akin to working through the complete String Quartets of Beethoven. One experiences a range of tones from profound and deeply spiritual meditations to broad, even raunchy humour.

This immensely great sequence is the high water mark in Elizabethan lyric poetry. It is easily available free in many formats and there are some good editions which provide annotations.

Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin - Fully nominated

Spoiler:

In favour- sun surfer, Bookworm_Girl, Bookpossum, bfisher


From Goodreads:

Eugene Onegin is the master work of the poet whom Russians regard as the fountainhead of their literature. Set in imperial Russia during the 1820s, Pushkin's novel in verse follows the emotions and destiny of three men - Onegin the bored fop, Lensky the minor elegiast, and a stylized Pushkin himself - and the fates and affections of three women - Tatyana the provincial beauty, her sister Olga, and Pushkin's mercurial Muse. Engaging, full of suspense, and varied in tone, it also portrays a large cast of other characters and offers the reader many literary, philosophical, and autobiographical digressions, often in a highly satirical vein. Eugene Onegin was Pushkin's own favourite work, and it shows him attempting to transform himself from romantic poet into realistic novelist.

Selected Poems by William Carlos Williams - 2

Spoiler:

In favour- Bookworm_Girl, sun surfer


From Bookworm_Girl:

There is an updated version published in 1985 by New Directions which appears available in multiple countries in both paper and electronic format. His major collections are Spring and All (1923), The Desert Music and Other Poems (1954), Pictures from Brueghel and Other Poems (1962), and Paterson (1963, repr. 1992). These also look available globally and may be an alternative to Selected Poems for some people.


From Wikipedia:

William Carlos Williams (September 17, 1883 – March 4, 1963) was an American poet closely associated with modernism and imagism. Williams is often counted as being among a group of four major American poets who were all born in a twelve-year period that began in 1874. The group also consists of Robert Frost, who was born in 1874; Wallace Stevens, who was born in 1879; and Hilda "H.D." Doolittle, who was born in 1886. Of these four, Williams died last, several weeks after Frost. (Stevens was first to die, in 1955, while H.D. lived until 1961).

The U.S. National Book Award was reestablished in 1950 with awards by the book industry to authors of 1949 books in three categories. Williams won the first National Book Award for Poetry, recognizing both the third volume of Paterson and Selected Poems.

In May 1963, he was posthumously awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Pictures from Brueghel and Other Poems (1962) and the Gold Medal for Poetry of the National Institute of Arts and Letters. The Poetry Society of America continues to honor William Carlos Williams by presenting the prestigious William Carlos Williams Award annually for the best book of poetry published by a small, non-profit or university press.

La Vita Nuova by Dante - 3

Spoiler:

In favour- fantasyfan, Bookworm_Girl, Bookpossum


From fantasyfan:

Here is a second series of love poems. There are fewer in number than in Shakespeare's cycle but in them Dante gives a commentary on the meaning of his love for Beatrice--who became one of the great images in The Divine Comedy. Hence, the advantage of this cycle is that we have the author's own explanation of the significance of the poetry giving it a strong auto-biographical dimension.

Again, a good translation is available on PG and one can easily get modern editions for a moderate price.

[Bookworm_Girl]

Happy New Year! Looking forward to the nominations. This is a tough category for me, but one that I feel is important to be challenged.

[Bookworm_Girl]

I would like to nominate Selected Poems by William Carlos Williams. There is an updated version published in 1985 by New Directions which appears available in multiple countries in both paper and electronic format. His major collections are Spring and All (1923), The Desert Music and Other Poems (1954), Pictures from Brueghel and Other Poems (1962), and Paterson (1963, repr. 1992). These also look available globally and may be an alternative to Selected Poems for some people.

From Wikipedia:

William Carlos Williams (September 17, 1883 – March 4, 1963) was an American poet closely associated with modernism and imagism. Williams is often counted as being among a group of four major American poets who were all born in a twelve-year period that began in 1874. The group also consists of Robert Frost, who was born in 1874; Wallace Stevens, who was born in 1879; and Hilda "H.D." Doolittle, who was born in 1886. Of these four, Williams died last, several weeks after Frost. (Stevens was first to die, in 1955, while H.D. lived until 1961).

The U.S. National Book Award was reestablished in 1950 with awards by the book industry to authors of 1949 books in three categories. Williams won the first National Book Award for Poetry, recognizing both the third volume of Paterson and Selected Poems.

In May 1963, he was posthumously awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Pictures from Brueghel and Other Poems (1962) and the Gold Medal for Poetry of the National Institute of Arts and Letters. The Poetry Society of America continues to honor William Carlos Williams by presenting the prestigious William Carlos Williams Award annually for the best book of poetry published by a small, non-profit or university press.

[sun surfer]

I nominate Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin.

From Goodreads:

Eugene Onegin is the master work of the poet whom Russians regard as the fountainhead of their literature. Set in imperial Russia during the 1820s, Pushkin's novel in verse follows the emotions and destiny of three men - Onegin the bored fop, Lensky the minor elegiast, and a stylized Pushkin himself - and the fates and affections of three women - Tatyana the provincial beauty, her sister Olga, and Pushkin's mercurial Muse. Engaging, full of suspense, and varied in tone, it also portrays a large cast of other characters and offers the reader many literary, philosophical, and autobiographical digressions, often in a highly satirical vein. Eugene Onegin was Pushkin's own favourite work, and it shows him attempting to transform himself from romantic poet into realistic novelist.


I also second the William Carlos Williams, and I agree with you Bookworm_Girl that the poetry month is challenging but worthwhile.

[Bookworm_Girl]

I second Eugene Onegin. Sounds very interesting.

[fantasyfan]

I will nominate the Sonnets of William Shakespeare. Many have read some of them but to go through the entire sequence is an aesthetic journey akin to working through the complete String Quartets of Beethoven. One experiences a range of tones from profound and deeply spiritual meditations to broad, even raunchy humour.

This immensely great sequence is the high water mark in Elizabethan lyric poetry. It is easily available free in many formats and there are some good editions which provide annotations.

[Bookpossum]

I third Pushkin and second Shakespeare. I have read both more years ago than I can count, and agree that both are great works I would be very happy to revisit.

Sorry Bookworm-Girl - I can't get Williams from my library, so must abstain from that one.

[fantasyfan]

I've been in the mood for sonnets lately, thus I'll nominate another famous sequence:

Dante: La Vita Nuova.

Here is a second series of love poems. There are fewer than in Shakespeare's cycle but in them Dante gives a commentary on the meaning of his love for Beatrice--who became one of the great images in The Divine Comedy. Hence, the advantage of this cycle is that we have the author's own explanation of the significance of the poetry giving it a strong auto-biographical dimension.

Again, a good translation is available on PG and one can easily get modern editions for a moderate price.

[Bookworm_Girl]

I will third Shakespeare.

[sun surfer]

I nominate the poetry of John Clare.

Most of his various selected poetry collections are only in pbook, though there is a Poems Chiefly from Manuscript free ebook on Amazon, and a Delphi complete works ebook for 99 cents. This nomination is open-ended with no particular collection in mind. Rather, we can read whichever poems or collection of his we each prefer and discuss our varying experiences with it.


From Goodreads:

John Clare produced some of English poetry’s most poignant and glorious lyrics. Writing not as an observer of nature but from an intimate knowledge of the wheatfields, hedgerows, and ditches of his village in Northamptonshire, he described animals, insects, trees, rivers, sunlight, and clouds with sublime sensitivity. But as enclosures and “improvements” came in the early nineteenth century, dismembering the rural landscape, his later poems became infused with a sense of disorientation and loss, and scattered with threads of madness. Clare’s genius has been rediscovered by fellow poets in every generation since his death, from Dylan Thomas to Ted Hughes to Seamus Heaney... His poetry underwent a major re-evaluation in the late 20th century and he is often now considered to be one of the most important 19th-century poets.

[Bookpossum]

Great suggestion sun surfer. I second John Clare.

[fantasyfan]

I third John Clare.

[bfisher]

I'll fourth John Clare, Shakespeare and Pushkin.

[Bookworm_Girl]

I will second Dante and that's my last vote!

[Bookpossum]

And with my last vote I third Dante.